Voluntary Student Unionism

Voluntary Student Unionism

E-Brief: Online Only issued 14 March 1999

Documents

On 21 December 1998 the Minister for Education, Training and
Youth Affairs, the Hon. Dr David
Kemp, announced that the Government would introduce legislation
in 1999 to ensure that university students have the right to choose
whether they wish to join a student association and pay union
fees.The Minister's media release can be obtained
here.

On the 22 December 1998 the Australian Vice-Chancellors'
Committee issued a press
release on this matter. The AVCC has also released a
Policy Paper on student organisations.

Members and Senators can obtain Background Notes on this issue
from Kim Jackson.

Related
Legislation

The
Higher Education Funding Act contains the conditions attached
to university grants. The Government proposes to amend these
conditions so that institutions will incur a financial penalty if
they require students to pay fees that will go to a student union
as membership dues or for the provision of campus amenities and
services.

In 1996 the Government introduced the Higher Education Funding
Amendment Bill (No.2) 1996. This was intended to remove provisions
relating to the Student Organisation Support Program, an initiative
of the former Labor Government designed to negate State legislation
preventing the levying of compulsory student union fees. The Bill
was the subject of a Senate Committee report (not available online)
and did not proceed. The Senate
debate on the report is available. A Bills
Digest which contains background on the student unionism issue
is available.

In Western Australia the Voluntary Membership of Student
Guilds and Associations Act was passed by the State Parliament
in December 1994. The legislation stipulates that membership of a
student association is to be voluntary and that no student is to be
required to pay any subscription or fee that is not directly
related to an educational course. This means that students cannot
be made to pay amenities and services fees, as well as union
membership fees. The Act amended the establishing Acts of all
Western Australian universities. An example of its provisions can
be found
here.

In Victoria the Tertiary Education (Amendment) Act
1994 was assented to in June 1994. The Act provides that the
governing body of any Victorian post-secondary educational
institution must not require any student to be a member of an
organisation of students, or to pay a compulsory fee for membership
of such an organisation. The Act permits the charging of compulsory
services and amenities fees but limits the expenditure of such fees
to defined activities of direct benefit to the students at the
institution. Victorian legislation can be accessed here.